I'm confused - contradicting advice on losing weight

lisamerrison

I am 46 years old and have been dieting off and on since I gave birth to my son who is now 21! I have tried every diet in the book!

I have realised sometime ago that I need to make a lifestyle change to lose weight. I have made changes to my eating for sometime now such as now using semi-skimmed milk, I drink coffee and tea with no milk or sugar, I do not fry anything and I eat healthy meals in the main.

I suppose if I am honest my main downfall is wine and eating out/take aways.

Now to my dilemma.

Statement: reduce the amount of calories you eat to reduce weight - so I do.
Not enough calories and you won't lose weight!
Exercise - I am exercising and on the food tracker this increases the amount of calories I am allowed. surely, the whole idea of exercising is to help to reduce weight not to counteract it with just more food!
I earned 842 extra calories yesterday with exercise but I only ate 951 calories and the MFP told me that I needed to eat a minimum of 1200 a day. But this is what I ate:
Bitesize shredded wheat with semi skimmed milk for breakfast
Slice of Ham and mixed salad for lunch
Piece of Cod with mixed salad for dinner
Jordans original crunchy cereal bar and a pkt of salt and vinegar snack a jacks as snacks and I ate these to increase my calorie intake I wasn't hungry

I really want to lose weight and I want to see results otherwise I will lose motivation.

Any advice from anyone would be great.

diadojikohei

I am also struggling with this and having enough calories, I've been doing this scheme for 3 weeks and haven't lost any weight yet.
I am also struggling to do exercises. I work til 6 each day, by the time I have sorted food, children, husband and homework and got children settled it is 9pm, I go to bed at 10 because I have to get up at 6.30 to start it all over again!
I walk the children to school and speed walk back each morning during term time so at least that is something I suppose!

FlaxMilk

You will lose weight on 1200 calories a day. Chances are, you will lose weight on more than 1200 calories per day. The heavier you are, the more you can eat to lose. I wouldn't jump to the lowest number available when others are possible because as you lose, your calorie needs will decrease, and you won't be able lower your calories any further safely.

Calculate your TDEE and through diet and exercise, consume/burn 500-1000 calories less than that for 1-2 lbs a week. If your TDEE is 2200, you can lose 1 lb at 1700 calories net and 2 lbs at 1200 calories net. You could eat 1200 and do no exercise, or you could eat 1400 and burn 200 calories for that net. If you do decide to go for the 2 lbs a week, remember that it's very hard to keep that up as you get lighter, because your TDEE will drop and so will the numbers you need for that same level of a deficit.

sarahrbraun

Your body requires a certain amount of calories to fuel bodily functions--breathing, heartbeat, etc...I am 5'2" and 203lbs and mine is over 1500 calories. MFP has me set to eat 1490 calories for a sedentary person, but I am not truly sedentary. Generally MFP builds a deficit into your calorie allowance. That is, if your BMR is 1900, they will tell you to eat 1400, and you will lose weight.

If you are eating under 1000 calories a day, then exercising on top of that...you are probably under eating. Therefor, your body kinda freaks out and stores as much as it can because it does not know when it will get adequate calories for its basic needs again.

According to what you said in your post, you basically gave your body 100 calories to work with yesterday!

I on the other hand started with 1490 calories...I ate 2 eggs, 2 slices of soy bacon and 1/2c full fat cottage cheese for breakfast...lunch was a meal replacement bar and a cup of almond milk as I was driving my son to the doctor...when I got home I had an ounce each of cashews and pecans...dinner was 2 hamburger patties (1/2lb total) and 3/4 of a cup of veggies,and a mini ice cream bar...bedtime snack was 2/3 cup of granola with 1/2 cup of almond milk--in total over 1900 calories, yet under 100 net carbs. With all my running around and my workout yesterday, I probably burned close to 1000 calories. That means that my body had 900 calories to fuel basic functions.